


No, your OTHER futuristic space setting.

by brawltogethernow



Category: Firefly, The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Genre: Alternate Universe - Firefly Fusion, Alternate Universe - Firefly Setting, Gen, Podfic Available, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:01:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26533282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brawltogethernow/pseuds/brawltogethernow
Summary: “So you’re the captain?”“Yes,” I lied. This is my least favorite of the many lies I tell regularly while traveling with ART.
Relationships: Asshole Research Transport & Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 132





	No, your OTHER futuristic space setting.

“So you’re the captain?”

“Yes,” I lied. This is my least favorite of the many lies I tell regularly while traveling with ART. People mark you out and keep an eye on you when they think you’re in charge of something. Tactically, it’s disadvantageous given my personal combat style. Emotionally, it sucks, and I hate it.

This group seemed kind of shifty, but just in a potentially murderous way, so that wasn’t too bad. The alternative was shifty in an Alliance-backed way, which could have led to ART taken apart or its AI reclaimed and me ending up back…wherever I was further back than I can remember, which for the record is not very far.

Considering this I don’t think I’ve done too bad for myself ending up in an arrangement where I convince travelers that a sentient ship isn’t its own captain, but like, what do I know.

“Lot of other people on the ship?” asked one of the people in the tightly bunched group we would maybe be ferrying across the system. She was, like all of them, eyeballing me. Negotiations are the worst. She was paying special attention to the pistol on my hip, which is what it was there for, but still not appreciated. My real weapons were in my boots. And my back holster. And under my sleeves. And one in my jacket pocket.

“It’s a skeleton crew,” I said. ART is the skeleton crew. I mostly skulk around and read old paperbacks that I pick up by the crateful when we stop in towns, camped out in the cramped rooms in the belly of the ship. Sometimes ART bullies me up to the spaces with portholes where you can see the black. It’s weirdly obsessed with the concept of not wasting a starside view for a person without eyes.

“It’s kind of dingy,” she said.

“Extremely,” I said, and didn’t add _and bad-mannered._

The overhead lights pulsed pointedly anyway.

“Poorly constructed, too,” I couldn’t help adding.

A spark actually leapt up from the seam where the floor was welded together I was standing on to zap the metal toe of my boot.

**Author's Note:**

> This was technically for a ship meme, though I was playing very fast and loose about writing "ships" to begin with (ha ha...ships, ART is a ship, okay sorry that snuck up on me), leading to the original caption:
>
>> me: They would be very offended to be shipped nonplatonically but I will try to work in direct acknowledgement that they’re friends.  
> Murderbot: I will not.  
> me: Understandable, have a nice day.
> 
> Eventually Mensah takes over the fake captain job.
> 
> [Og prompt/Tumblr mirror](https://brawltogethernow.tumblr.com/post/628747179887132672/for-the-pairing-askbox-meme-how-about)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] No, your OTHER futuristic space setting.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28483815) by [AirgiPodSLV (AirgiodSLV)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AirgiodSLV/pseuds/AirgiPodSLV)




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